yes i get sharp photos,good lighting and just started to use CS3 but as i browse the portrait photos here (including people photography) i notice that pretty much all of them have that magazine-ish look, how do i do that ? am i lacking equipment? (i shoot with 70-200mm IS USM attached to a 400D) should i use more lighting? eg Lamp ? open more windows ?, or is that done thru PS ? like i said i get real sharp photos, enough lighting but it seems like i can bring out so much more out of the photos, and evrytime i see the portrait photos posted here it seems like it was pulled out from a magazine. Pls share the knowledge if its done thru PS and also tips or techniques thanks in advance

There are many ways of getting the looks you are talking about, but personnelly I think you should put a few of your portraits up so we can see your images to gadge where we can help and guide you in the right direction.

Here the person is sat about 3 feet to the right of a large window (can be north facing no problems). So the window is side on to them. That's it ... nothing else.... just take the shot

Now to add even more impact, the lens used can open up to f/1.4, thus blurring the background & even part of the head out of focus. You'll find using a shallow depth of field (dof) really does make a subject stand out from the background. Don't panic if you haven't got a f/1.8 lens (about £55 for 50mm f/1.8 that everyone should have for portraits) . If you only have f/4 then pull the subject farther away from the background.

well from the portrait link that dave provided, i guess i wana learn how to achieve the result of the 5th photo (lil girl) that look is what im after, even tho i may not have the equipment still very keen to learn, even dave's profile pic is a good example of what i want to demystify, i guess its the lighting aye, since ive already mucked around enough on PS, but i hope ive explained what i meant by magazine-ish look, i guess i mean a high quality photo that's publishable, just want to know if portrait photos like dave is done by a reflector? expensive studio lighting equipment? or just alot of PS work done to it ? so that i can try myself.
basically list of inexpensive or expensive equipment to achieve good enough result that im after (like daves ) and or simple tutorial on how it was done on PS thanks in advance
PS